Izzy groaned as she pushed herself to a sitting position. She felt light headed and her vision was distorted, she was in no sort of pain, but her senses were numb and she had a very distinct hazy feeling that made her feel as if she was walking while intoxicated. Carelessly Izzy stood to her feet, attempting to walk, and nearly failing in the process multiple times. She stumbled aimlessly, catching herself against the side of an unconscious Eyrn who was lying on her stomach on the simple marble flooring.

Something inside told her this was not normal, something had happened, recently, something important that she really should be concerned about, but in her delirious state nothing seemed quite important enough to matter, nothing seemed out of place, even though everything clearly was.

Izzy gave her head a shake and stumbled backwards, nearly falling right back onto her rear. The prostate body of her comrade and commanding officer Master Sergeant Darren Avery was placed behind her at just the wrong location. Izzy managed to stay afoot longer than most, but fell over Darren’s unconscious body, landing in a prone position on the other side of him. Despite how strange this all seemed, she could not bring herself to react to it. Her mind was wrapped in thick cloud, as if she had just woken up from surgery a few moments before her brain had come out of a deep sleep.

Movement caught her eye, and slowly, without much incentive or motivation she looked over lazily towards the source of whatever it was that caught her attention in the first place. Izzy’s face distorted into a confused and questioning stare as she watched two intensely large figures moving in the distance. They were each dressed in sterling silver uniforms, and wore a strange cover over their face, which looked somewhat like a white mask leaving only their eyes exposed. Their bodies were enveloped completely in the sterling silver suit, hands feet and all, and they moved about slowly in the distance, eyeing a screen that had them facing away from Izzy and everyone else present.

They spoke in deep voices in a language Izzy had never before heard, in her present state, she could not quite put a finger on it, but there was a small sense of familiarity to the language, but nothing distinct enough to ring any bells.

Izzy pushed off Darren’s form and untangled her legs from his own, coming to a standing position. The Sarge didn’t react to the movement, and even when Izzy clumsily stepped on his hand he didn’t even so much as flinch. If not for the slow rhythmic contractions of his chest caused by his breathing, she’d not even know he was alive. This was Darren Avery, her friend, her commanding officer; they had served together for years. She knew who this was, and yet he seemed strange to her, foreign and distant. She hadn’t forgotten who he was, she just lacked the comprehension of that knowledge presently. It was a strange, almost dream like feeling, he was there, he was Darren…but she wasn’t altogether convinced he was real.

Izzy felt the distinct desire to distance herself from the looming figures, each of them a great deal larger than herself and even a fair bit bigger than Eyrn, who was also seemingly unresponsive to sound or touch. Her better judgment told her to stick around, wandering off was a mistake, it went against all her training; it was perhaps the worst thing she could do in a strange and foreign situation. To distance herself from her comrades could not end well, but her inhibitions were lowered, no small voice in the back of her mind was awake enough to warn her against such actions, not even a screaming red light of doom and gloom was present. Despite all the obvious reasons that would otherwise be quite clear to her, Isabelle Ibanez could find no logical reason to stay where she was. Danger was here, and she should distance herself from danger.

Izzy slowly made her way as far from the figures in the distance as she could. The room around her was a very strange alien looking place, the floors and the walls were pristine, clean and made of a reflective metal substance. There were screen like terminals in the distance, and large structures that stood out like skyscrapers. They were likely table surfaces but whatever sat atop them was far out of Izzy’s reach. Regardless of their intended function, they acted as a good enough hiding spot for the delirious human. There was a small lip under the structure, which otherwise was solid metal from top to bottom, with another lip jutting out atop to form the counter’s surface. Izzy crouched down and crawled under the space, which was just small enough for her to fit under.

“Subject appears to contain several hundred foreign pathogens and contagions…none exceedingly harmful. Level 2 decontamination procedure recommended.” One of the giant beings spoke to the other, try as she may Izzy had no clue what was being said.

“Agreed, proceed with decontamination procedure.” The second giant figure responded, a deep voice but not quite as deep as the first.

“Kinda small eh? My kid’s bigger than her.” The first form spoke up once more.

“Subject is female, 25 years old, 0.83 units, 87 quantons heavy, with, brown hair, moderate muscle tone. Bio-thermal powered anti-grav devices grafted into subjects skeletal system….” The second giant was quickly interrupted.

“Really? Wow…now that’s a relic eh?” The first form spoke quickly sounding almost shocked.

“Yep.” The second form, taller of the two responded. “Not likely they’re gonna be able to remove them eh.”

“Why not?” The shorter of the two questioned as they continued to input number into the computer.

“Designed for infant and child use, these implants used to be necessary for prolonged exposure to high grav planets. Youngens would fiddle with or remove their exterior devices sometimes causing death. This was the only alternative.” The taller form turned and made its way towards Eyrn.

“Stopped using those ages ago though eh?” The shorter figure followed.

“Hard to remove if left in too long…the bio-thermal cell grafts itself to the subject’s skeletal system…growing WITH the subject…after too long it becomes almost integrated.” The taller form knelt over, extending some strange device over Eyrn’s form.

“So she’s stuck with it? The shorter form did the same with a similar device, but from the other side.

“Not a big deal, can be deactivated remotely. It would be more dangerous to remove the implants than to leave them in. Won’t really do her harm…if they’ve been in this long…” The larger figure’s attention suddenly shifted to something near the side of Eyrn’s prone body. “Well what do we have here?”

“Find something? The shorter form peeked over.

“A human.” The taller figure carefully lifted the unconscious Darren up with its silvery hand.

“Oh, neat!” The shorter figure sounded excited.

“Do a pat down, make sure she doesn’t have any more.” The taller form looked down at Darren as it ran the strange device over his small body.

“Got another one here!” The shorter form pulled Reese’s small body out from Eyrn’s pocket. He was unconscious like Darren. The shorter figure cupped Reese carefully in a silvery hand and looked towards the other giant.

“Any more?”

“Mmmm….nope…not unless she has some real creative places to keep them!” The shorter form spoke after patting Eyrn down once more.

The large form moved the strange device over Reese and then shifted Darren into the smaller giant’s hand with Reese. “Can you take these two to science lab 2. Let them get a look at them…and send the report to Commander Lemm…she’s gonna wanna know about this.” The taller form stood looking down at Eyrn.

“What about her?” The shorter figure stood.

“Got a team from the infirmary on route to get her, gonna get a bed for her until she wakes up. Maybe some restraints too.” The taller form spoke as he rounded the other side of Eyrn, carefully he knelt over, placed one hand near her rear and the other on her shoulder, carefully he rolled her onto her side, into a recovery position. “By the Emperor is she ever petite!”

“Restraints? Really? Look at how tiny she is! She can’t do any harm ya think?” The shorter form cupped the two humans carefully together and made for the door.

“Heh, yea not likely. Heck I’ve seen Insectoids bigger than this one…”

The shorter of the two masked giant figures left leaving only the taller. They seemed to have proportions similar to Eyrn, with an overall outline that resembled her. They had hands, feet, they were humanoid, as for what they looked like under the silvery suits, that was as much a mystery to Izzy as the words coming out of their mouths.

Izzy kept a close eye on the remaining giant figure, until the opening of the large silvery doors, the same doors the shorter giant had exited moments ago, broke the relative silence. Three more giant beings entered the room, each of various heights. These ones were wearing simply facial masks, but lacked the silvery metallic suits.

Two of the giants appeared male, one female, the two males were pushing what looked to be a stretcher, and the female was carrying a small device, it had a nozzle like handle attached to a small tank via a hose, it was transparent and contained a strange clear liquid inside.

The giants spoke to one another, nothing they said even sounded remotely like anything Izzy had ever heard. After brief words the two males carefully lifted Eyrn onto the stretcher device which hovered without the use of legs. Without words they removed her from the room, leaving Izzy to her own devices.

“I’m going to send my report to Captain Bass, you can handle clean up correct?” The taller figure from before, the one in the silvery suit spoke to the female carrying the strange contraption.

“Yes Sir!” The female spoke with an eager tone to her voice.

“Do a good job Jr, Crewmate! We don’t need a pandemic on our hands…never know what sort of nasty germs are down there on baby blue!” The taller giant spoke as it made its way to the door.

“Yes sir! No problem sir!” The female spoke up once more, throwing what looked to be a salute up as the taller form left.

The remaining giantess’ demeanor changed the moment she found herself alone. While Izzy could not quite understand what was being said, she knew by the tone of voice, and the giantess’ body language, she was not at all pleased. She moved around heavily, in a sulking manner as she began to spray the room with the clear liquid from the contraption.

“Academy honors, top of my class…Xenolinguistics major with a degree in primitive languages…and I get stuck on bloody clean up!” The giantess grumbled as she went along her task. Despite her foul mood she seemed to be leaving no corner untouched, no space unsprayed.

Izzy was starting to come to, the severity of her situation was at least apparent to her now. Darren, Reese and Eyrn had all been taken somewhere by different people, she was alone, had no idea where she was, and had no means of communication with whomever her captors were. Revealing herself was the first thing to cross her mind, where ever her friends had been taken, it stood to reason she would be taken there as well if discovered. But would that be a place she wanted to go? Had Darren and Reese been taken off to their doom?

The undeniable truth was clear as day, these people were like Eyrn…they were exactly like her, only they seemed even bigger. Eyrn, while gigantic, paled in comparison to the giantess who stood before her now. It was like a child standing next to an adult.

Izzy felt her time begin to expire as the giantess began to draw ever closer to her current location.Whatever that substance in the contraption was, Izzy was not altogether sure it was something she wanted to be doused in; it was clear, had a strong and pungent odor to it that burned her nostrils like ammonia.

“Join The Fleet they said…see the universe they said…bah…I’d be better off working on an expedition crew…at least they get to see actual alien worlds…betcha they don’t get stuck spraying for bugs!” The giantess spat out a few more words, none of which Izzy could comprehend. But it was clear by her tone she was not pleased, and not getting any happier it seemed.

The moment for action was quickly approaching, she could make a run for it across the room and hope not to be spotted, but the giantess was paying close attention to her current location. If she stayed and tried to maintain her hiding place she would be covered with whatever it was that was being sprayed all over the room. Would it burn, could it kill? She didn’t really want to find out. A sick feeling filled her stomach as her instincts kicked in, almost without thinking, with much of her clarity of mind having returned to her, Izzy stepped out into the open, cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted up a the approaching giantess.

“Um…hey…down here! Hello!?”

The giantess froze in her tracks as her eyes picked up the movement well before she heard the small voice. Her eyes were visible from the small white mask, and they betrayed a look of shock and awe.

“What the? How did you…where did you? W…what!?” The giantess appeared quite shocked to see Izzy, and stood over her, looking down, letting the nozzle in her hand slowly lower to the floor.

“Where did you come from?”

Izzy suddenly did not feel as sure of her decision as the giantess loomed over her, a look of awe painted across her face. Unsure of what was being asked of her, Izzy simply stood where she was, fighting the urge to retreat back into her hiding place.

Slowly the giant lowered herself to a crouching position, she didn’t approach any closer, but she didn’t back away. “You are lucky you came out when you did little one. This stuff would burn the skin right off your body!” The crewmate spoke, peering down at the small-frightened human with gentle and concerned eyes.

Izzy backed up a little as the immense form before her moved, fluidly and with agility just like Eyrn, only bigger.

“Oh…Nonono…I didn’t mean –I- was going to do that…please don’t run…I’m not gonna hurt you!” The stranger spoke softly, lifting her hands up in a ‘surrender’ position possibly to show she meant no harm.

The meaning of the gesture was not fully understood, but the stranger’s tone of voice and soft eyes helped. With much effort, Izzy ceased her retreat and slowly took a timid step forward.

“Come on…just a little closer…it’s ok. I’m Lauryna…and I won’t hurt you.” Lauryna smiled as she beckoned the small human to come closer, attempting to ease the frightened human’s concerns.

With small, nervous steps, Izzy made her way closer, until she was standing right before the towering form that was crouched before her. She had to crane her neck back to get a good look.

“Damn you’re big!” Izzy muttered to herself, had she not spent a majority of her career around Eyrn, she might actually find herself amazed at the sight before her.

Lauryna giggled, she could understand what the tiny human was saying, her mark 1 universal translation implant allowed her to comprehend any language that was stored in the universal databank. Within seconds of hearing the language spoken, her implant would analyse, download, and translate the words right to her brain. What Izzy spoke was English, what Lauryna heard wasArchavian. Unfortunately, this did little to help Izzy understand what Lauryna was saying.

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing! Look at you! How did you get here?! I bet you got separated from your master when we pulled her up eh?” Lauryna spent some time watching Izzy, she made no motions to apprehend her, and kept as still as she could.

Izzy felt uneasy, she wanted to try to communicate, but other than speaking ridiculously slow, she had no idea how. So far however she was alive, and whoever this was didn’t seem overly malicious. Simply very curious.

“Here, let’s get you off the floor.” Lauryna reached down to lift Izzy, only to find the small human unwilling to allow that.

Izzy leapt back in high alert and made a few backpedalling steps towards her hiding place.

“Ohhh that wasn’t smart of me now was it. I’m sorry!” Lauryna removed her mask to show the rest of her face. Across her lips was a resourceful expression, her eyes were soft. “But we really do have to get you off the floor.” Lauryna lowered her palm to the ground palm facing up and motioned to it gingerly. “Come…I don’t bite…I promise.”

Izzy narrowed her eyes. Why was she so chatty? Didn’t the giant know her words were lost on her? She had to understand that. What was the point of being so chatty then? She did sound kind, and her voice was soft, she didn’t reach out a second time even though she easily could have snatched her up if she wanted to.

“Please?” Lauyrna made a sweet face.

Izzy took one more step back, holding her breath. “Oh hell why not?!” With determination she took a step forward and made for the giantess outstretched hand.